Jambox–Jawbone’s nifty super-small, battery-powered Bluetooth speaker/speakerphone gadget–got even a little niftier this week. Jawbone released version 2.0 of the Jambox’s software. It’s available on new Jamboxes, and current owners can download the free upgrade via the MyTalk service. The big new feature is LiveAudio, a technology that’s designed to make sound more multidimensional, including support for binaural recordings–ones recorded using a special technique that only needs two speakers to create a 3D audio effect that can be spectacular. Jawbone provided me with a unit with the new software for review.

Binaural recordings have been around for decades, and are generally meant to be heard over headphones. In fact, the Wikipedia article on the technique specifically says that the 3D effect doesn’t work over speakers. But Jawbone has figured out how to make it work on the Jambox.

When the Jawbone folks demoed binaural audio for me using sound files they’d chosen, the effect was dazzling. My ears and brain thought that they heard different sounds coming at them from different directions in all 360 degrees. I also had fun using my iPhone 4 to stream audio I knew was recorded binaurally (such as Pearl Jam’s appropriately-named album and some demo tracks) to the Jambox.

As for random other music from my collection and streaming services, games, and movies, probably not recorded binaurally: some of them sounded meaningfully richer and more multidimensional with LiveAudio turned on; in other cases, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. But even when LiveAudio isn’t a factor, the Jambox still sounds great for a speaker system you can hold in the palm of your hand.

With LiveAudio turned on, the maximum volume of the Jambox is much lower than when it’s off. (You can easily toggle the effect by pressing both the volume buttons at once.) I didn’t find this to be a crippling flaw. You want to be sitting within three to four feet of the Jambox to hear the binaural effect anyway, and it wouldn’t really work in a room with much other noise. It’s for personal listening, not for parties. You might have a bigger issue with low volume if you like to listen to music loud, though–some of the folks discussing the new software at Jawbone’s site aren’t pleased.

LiveAudio works only over Bluetooth, not over a cabled connection between the Jambox and an output device. (I get good results with music-over-Bluetooth from an iPhone, but tend to use a cable for my Mac–when I push music to the Jambox or any other wireless device over the Mac’s Bluetooth connection, it sometimes gets garbled.)

Jawbone says it’s going to work with artists and others in the recording industry to create binaural recordings. I wish it luck; I’d like more of them. And while I wouldn’t invest in a Jambox under the assumption that binaural will be everywhere, the Jambox is still a very cool smartphone accessory–especially if you use it for both music listening and speakerphone calls, which helps make its $199.99 pricetag sound a little less intimidating.

Jawbone (formerly known as Aliph) started out as a company that made neat headsets. Then it made a portable speaker and released an app for sharing audio notes. Yesterday, it announced that it’s working on its first product that isn’t centered around sound. It’s called Up–which makes me think of Carl Fredricksen–and Jawbone really isn’t saying much about it other than that it’s a smart wristband that talks to your phone and helps you monitor your well-being:

UP leverages Jawbone’s expertise and partner ecosystem integrating robust computing and sophisticated sensor technology in the form of
functional jewelry. UP by Jawbone is a new system that tracks your movement, sleep patterns, and nutrition so you can live a healthier life.
This new end-to-end system consists of a small wristband that monitors your activity 24/7, a mobile app that analyzes the activity, and an open platform that motivates you with personal and social recommendations and challenges tailored to your goals.

The company says that the product will be available later this year, at a price yet to be announced.

Almost exactly one year after releasing the stylish Jawbone Icon, Bluetooth headset maker Aliph is back with the Jawbone Era, a new $129 model that’s meant as a higher-end complement to the $99 Icon, which remains on the market. It continues to address my own long-standing gripe about all headsets–I can never remember how to use the darn things–by being the first model I’ve seen that you can operate without using any buttons other than the on/off switch.

Aliph VP Travis Bogard provided me with an Era for review and told me that the headset was also designed for an, um, era in which relatively few people choose to use a Bluetooth headset to make traditional calls, but more and more folks are doing more and more audio-related things with their smartphones–from using Skype to listening to Pandora and podcasts.

The Era is longer and skinnier than the Icon–it looks a bit like a cross between that model and the earlier Prime. Aliph says that it’s fit a 25 percent larger wideband speaker into the earpiece, permitting higher-quality audio for both calls and apps such as music players that can stream audio using A2DP; it’s also upgraded its NoiseAssassin noise-reduction technology to version 3.0, with new features such as automatic volume adjustments that optimize settings for your particular surroundings. The headset does indeed sound good–even for music, which is monophonic but otherwise surprisingly pleasing. (Bogard told me that some Jawbone users prefer to listen to music in only one ear–it leaves the other one free to hear whatever’s going on around them.)

As with the Icon, you can answer a call by pressing a button–but you can also just tap the Era twice without bothering to find the button with your fingertip. If the headset isn’t already in your ear, you can pick it up, shake it twice to answer, then put it on to take the call. And when you pair it with your phone or laptop, you can shake it four times to enter pairing mode. All of this is made possible by a built-in accelerometer and MotionX motion-detection technology from Fullpower, a company cofounded by industry legend Philippe Kahn. It’s both practical and fun.

(Headsets that interact with the world around them in new ways seems to be a trend: Plantronics’ upcoming Voyager Pro UC uses a sensor to tell whether you’re wearing it or not, so it can take calls if it’s in your ear and route them to your phone handset if it isn’t.)

The Era includes a new version of Aliph’s MyTalk service, which lets you download applets onto the headset. I wasn’t able to try this out, but it includes a Caller ID feature that can read names from your address book rather than merely speaking the phone number.

Aliph says that the Era gets up to 5.5 hours on a charge (up from 4.5 with the Icon) and ten hours of standby. It comes with the best headset accouterments I’ve seen: eight different earbuds, an optional loop, a carrying case, a neat stubby MicroUSB cable, and a wall charger. And it’s available in four attractive models, all of which are on the subdued side compared to the ten (!) colorful options currently available for the Icon. (The Era choices are known as Shadowbox, Smokescreen, Midnight, and Silver Lining, and they’re still pretty stylish by headphone standards.)

I persist in thinking that wired headsets remain a perfectly legitimate alternative to wireless ones. (I like Nox’s Scout, a set of sound-isolating earbuds with a microphone and a tangle-proof flat cable.) But the Jawbone Era is a meaningful upgrade over the company’s earlier models–one that Bluetooth fans should like a lot, and which even we skeptics may find tempting.

The basic industrial design hasn’t really changed: It’s still small and stylish (as befits its $130 price). But a new indentation–which is very subtle–makes it a bit easier for your finger to find the button you use for functions such as turning the headset on and off.

Earloops are the bane of my phone-using existence–I can never figure out how to get them over my ear–and while the Jawbone Prime comes with one, it attempts to let most people do without it by providing six rubber earbuds in three different sizes. Three of the buds have a sort of nub that helps to lodge the bud in your ear, and it seems to work well–I was able to shake my head back and forth vigorously without the Jawbone flying out.

The single most important thing about any headset, of course, is that you can hear and be heard. I haven’t used the new Jawbone enough to judge whether it’s an advance on the old one, but Aliph claims much better sound quality in a variety of environments, from quiet areas to ones with a jackhammer blasting in the background. The Jawbone’s noise reduction works best if you let the tip touch your face, but the company says that the Prime works far better than earlier models if it loses contact. It’s also the first Jawbone that aims specifically to help with wind. (Although the company is guarded about its promise there–the headset’s packaging says in one place that it “Eliminates Noise, but another label states merely that it “Reduces Wind Noise.”

This is also the first Jawbone that supports multipoint Bluetooth–letting you use it with two phones at once. And it comes in a total of seven colors, including understated platinum, black, and brown, and four not-understated-at-all “Ear Candy” colors:

As a Californian, I can’t avoid headsets altogether unless I flout state law or never use my phone while driving. I recently bought one that’s a sort of anti-Jawbone: a cheap, ugly wired model with no advanced features whatsoever. I bought it mostly to try and sidestep-Bluetooth related issues, including the need to charge the headset and establish a wireless connection with my phone. (Aliph, incidentally, says that talk time for the new Jawbone is about the same as for the old one–4.5 hours.) But over the next few weeks, I’m going to do a personal faceoff between the wired headset’s old, unglamorous technology and everything that the Jawbone Prime promises. I may never have fallen in love with any headset, but I’ve got an open mind…